Lowe's cuts out all commission sales

[Garufa]

I'm having difficulty determining why I should care about Lowe's no longer paying commissions.

When I go to make a major purchase I already know what I want, have done my homework and that's what I buy. In a way I'm a sales person's best kind of customer...and the worst. They get commission for little effort, but cannot talk me into needless upgrades.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Garufa

[jtmaze]

As a stockholder my worries are how will the stores replace the key salespeople as they leave or move into different positions for less stress.

JTM🔫

Sent from my iPhone

[jtmaze]

I'm having difficulty determining why I should care about Lowe's no longer paying commissions.

When I go to make a major purchase I already know what I want, have done my homework and that's what I buy. In a way I'm a sales person's best kind of customer...and the worst. They get commission for little effort, but cannot talk me into needless upgrades.

We appreciate that but you are not the norm. Does your wife like Sonic ice? Would you even think to want that on a refrigerator. That is what I have been doing for years.

JTM🔫

Sent from my iPhone

[Garufa]

Not trying to make lite of your situation jt, just trying to understand. I had no idea anyone at Lowe's worked off commission...I've never bought a major appliance there, except for a hot water heater.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Garufa

[Moped]

I hate to hear that. Seems like more and more, in this economy, the big corporations are no longer taking care of their employees. I feel your pain. I don't work on commission, but I do work for a company of 65,000 and we've had our benefits cut way back. They no longer pay for any kind of insurance, so the employees are now footing all the bill. I'm middle of the road pay wise, I feel sorry for our lower paid staff. It hurt us pretty bad, IT had to hurt them even worse! Of course, our stockholders are happy up on Wall Street.

[TripleDigitRide]

As a stockholder my worries are how will the stores replace the key salespeople as they leave or move into different positions for less stress.

JTM🔫

Sent from my iPhone

Now's the time to sell.

[Guest dubaholic2]

I've worked for a few large companies and what I've learned along the way is that they all suck, and their employee's best interests are not even close to what's at heart.

[Lumber_Jack]

Now's the time to sell.

Ask Martha Stewart about insider trading.

[jtmaze]

This is public knowledge.

JTM🔫

Sent from my iPhone

[enfield]

This is the attitude about customer service that makes me hate commission sale stores. An employee's job should be to help all customers equally with their purchases. It shouldn't matter if they are buying a $10 hammer or a $2,000 appliance.

Easy to say when you're not the one trying to live on $9/hour plus commissions.

[strickj]

We appreciate that but you are not the norm. Does your wife like Sonic ice? Would you even think to want that on a refrigerator. That is what I have been doing for years.

JTM🔫

Sent from my iPhone

That's what blender and microwave salesmen said when they were fazed out in the '70s.

"But does your wife know that she needs 4 blades in her blender?"

[Bubba0031]

In concurance with the OP It's clear that eliminating the commission from large sales and special orders is a pay cut for employees. Regardless of what effect it has for customers or the company I've never liked it when employees that were hired with certain expectations have pay or benefits taken away and told to like it or leave.

However my own personal experience with Lowe's commissioned sale personnal was much less than satisfactory.

The largest single home improvement store purchase I ever made was @ Lowe's in 2005. I bought all new doors and windows for my house. The total purchase was $10,000 and over the course of placing the order I had to deal with two different employees depending on who was on duty at the time. The experience was not pleasant due to the obvious infighting between them. My gut told me at the time that I should have discontinued the effort to make the purchase. To make matters worse I purchased front and back doors to match. I had the Lowe's representative do the measurments. The measurments were correct but one of the two employees ordered the back door incorrectly (to large/wide). The employee ordered a standard size door and do not look to see that the measurments indicated a narrower door. Unfortuntaly the back door wasn't manufactured in the smaller size meaning that a back door couldn't be purchased to match the front which was already installed. If the employee had correctly told me the door I wanted wasn't manufactured I would not have purchased either door since I wanted them to match. Lowe's refursed to do anything to correct the problem but did offer to have the door custom made if I was willing to pay them the additional cost of over $1000. Lowe's ultimately dumped the problem on me to solve. I ended up spending my time and effort to solve their problem by locating another vendor who could provide an acceptable door that was similiar to but did not match the new front door. More unfortuntaly I had to get my attorney involved in order to force Lowe's to refund the cost of the incorrectly ordered material and pay the other vendor for the replacment door.

[Guest HvyMtl]

Ok, does the comparable position in Home Depot pay commission? That would be the first place I would look, as the experience is spot on for what they need. Might even get you a raise, if you point out you have x number years of experience.

IF not, start the job hunt. Sounds like you need to move to a new place fast.

Look at home improvement places, like renovation, or roofing sales (tho many think roofing sellers are lower than car salesmen...)

[Wyldk2]

I don't remember ever being paid a commishion when i worked for lowes. I worked for lowe's for 5 years in Tools, Electrical and plumbing before i finally came to my senses. Lowes not paying for commissions? they didn't want you to work over 39.9 hours either, even as a full-time employee. It's all about greed, the corporate goons see it as a way to cut costs and fill their pockets. They'll keep on cutting things that cost them the bottom line and they really don't care about the ones that make the company what it is. It's happening in most big box stores. I remember when we had 3 holidays off, then they took easter away. Now how long til they take Thanksgiving away and Christmas? It's all about how much money they can make, They don't care about the little people.

So glad i got out when i did. Actually have a job more in my field and my weekends are free. Plus the 3 weeks paid vacation is nice as well as the 5 paid holidays.